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Monday, 31 October 2016

Top Royal Instagrams of October 2016

The most liked royal Instagram image of October 2016 and no surprises to see who it stars

Here it is, the most liked royal Instagram image of October 2016. As social media takes an ever bigger place in how the regal story is told in 2016, we can get a good idea of what it is about royalty that makes it popular from the images that get the hearts. And there are no prizes for guessing who comes top when it comes to Instgram likes. The most popular royal image shared on official social media this month features the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge with their two children as they left Canada at the end of their tour.

To be fair, it's not hard for Kensington Palace images to top these kind of polls as its Instagram account is the most popular by far of all the royal ones out there right now with 1.7 million followers. The photo of George, Charlotte and their mum and dad waving goodbye to Canada got 80,000 likes by the end of October while the second most popular of the past month, the now iconic image of Kate viewing the Girl with the Pearl Earring, is on 65,000 and counting. That's more than the most popular photos on all the other royal accounts put together.

A photo posted by The Royal Family (@theroyalfamily) on Oct 14, 2016 at 11:35am PDT

Which is why it's so interesting to look at what is scoring big for each individual royal account. Kate is a huge social media draw so it's really not that surprising to see that the most liked image on the Royal Family account also features the Duchess of Cambridge - there are almost 17,000 likes for an image of her and her husband laying a wreath during a visit to Manchester.

A photo posted by The Royal Family (@theroyalfamily) on Oct 27, 2016 at 4:58am PDT

But not far behind is THAT photo of the Queen in a supermarket which has got just about everyone talking and smiling. In the few days since it was posted, it's got almost 16,000 likes and there's little doubt that as November unfolds it will overtake the Kate photo. But this is a summary of what hit the heights in the calendar month of October - the fluidity of Instagram means that popularity can ebb and flow.

A photo posted by Clarence House (@clarencehouse) on Oct 27, 2016 at 8:34am PDT

Instagram is all about images, the photo does the talking. And the official Clarence House account shows that - it has just a tenth of the following of Kensington Palace and its most popular photo this month has won just under 3,000 likes. But the classic shot of Charles and Camilla in the pub the prince named after his duchess has plenty of life in it.

A photo posted by Belgian Royal Palace (@belgianroyalpalace) on Oct 24, 2016 at 11:22pm PDT

Other royal houses have much younger Instagram accounts and that's reflected in the number of fans they currently boast. The Belgian royals only recently started their photo sharing and count just 3,779 followers right now. The most popular photo shared this month was a new portrait of the heir to the throne, Princess Elisabeth, to mark her 15th birthday. It got just over 550 likes in October but that's five times more than many of the other images on there. And it's a good indication as to what the Instagram audience wants - new photos and the next generation of royals.

The Danish Royal Family's account is just as new and just like its Belgian counterpart, it's a birthday portrait of a future monarch that was getting all the love this month. The new photo of Prince Christian, taken to mark his 11th birthday, was easily its best liked image. The heart tally for that one stands at just shy of 9,000 - three times the number of the next best liked photo, one of his dad in a scarf after a trampoline accident. That's modern royalty.

A photo posted by Kungahuset (@kungahuset) on Oct 17, 2016 at 6:36am PDT

But then royal Instagram accounts are just like the rest of them really - a great photo will get the love. And that's a case in point for the Swedish account which shared loads of great images this month with the October winner here being a striking and standout image of three royal brides caught in the flashbulbs as they opened an exhibition about their wedding dresses. This fabulous photo got almost 11,000 likes making it easily the most popular here.

And to end, a selfie because no trawl through Instagram would be complete otherwise. Crown Princess Mette-Marit of Norway runs her own Instagram account with plenty of good causes and the occasional personal image in there. This month she shared a selfie with her husband, Crown Prince Haakon Magnus, and hit the heights on the like count with a tally of 13,000 and counting in less than a week. It's mostly of him, the person taking it is half cut out of the photo - in fact, it looks like tens of thousands of other selfies posted on Instagram in October. And that's the point. This social media site is telling us what is working for royalty right now and most of these popular photos are of family moments, of young royals, of relaxed moments. It tells us a lot about royalty - those likes are stacking up.